Am I crazy or was this wrong!

[ckaranassos]

My little boy (okay he's 9 and in third grade) had a class trip on Friday to Philadelphia PA. Well from where we live it is an 1 1/2 drive. Anyhoo he came home from the trip and seemed to have a good time. So we get talking about it and I am asking him questions and he's answering them- when I ask who he sat with on the bus he looks down and says no one. Apparently everyone paired up and he was odd man out (this happened coincidently he has plenty of friends). So they had to keep same seats up and back. So that means my son sat alone on a charter bus with huge seats (could not see over or around) for a little over three hours total. Am I crazy or shouldn't the teacher have seen this and or prevented it right from the beginning by pairing the children before they got on the bus. Overall I think it bothered me more than him, but he was upset:( and now his mommy is :mad: am I wrong?

[DisneyWhirled]

My son is the same age as yours. That is so sad! Why didn't someone notice that he was alone, and have the seats moved (just a bit) at least on the way back!

Did he say anything to a teacher? My son probably would not have.

I'm sorry that happened!

[Ian]

That is kinda odd ..... you'd have thought they would have switched it up on the way home.

[Gooftroop5]

They usually don't at least with past experience I've had. DD (who is the same age as your ds)has been left without a partner & was "buddy" with the teacher. It was this way to & from the trip (they were walking field trips). Although its not fair it how they do it. Its more so someone doesn't get confused & left behind. It does seem weird though that they enforced this buddy system on the bus. Usually its after they get off the bus that they make them buddy up.

Sorry it happened.

[SBETigg]

I'm with you. I think it's wrong. I realize it is a pain for teachers to switch it all around once they have it set, but the same boy shouldn't have been left alone for both rides, there and back. The teacher should have been on it and asked someone to switch. When I was a kid, I would have loved to have had a seat to myself and I would gladly have switched. I'm sorry your son had to be upset.

[crazypoohbear]

I know why they do it this way. SO if a kid isn't sitting next to you on the way home the other kid can say so and so is not here.
However, the teacher should have moved the kid around so at least if he was sitting alone there would have been two kids in the row beside him. like this
xx xx
xx x
xx xx
xx xx
or if the kids were little they could have sat three to a seat.

[Dakota Rose]

It does seem odd and I would probably mention it to the teacher. She probably didn't do it on purpose, but certainly she should have noticed.

[PirateLover]

He didn't even get to sit across from someone in an aisle? Having the same seats is typically how things are done. It really makes it a lot easier for kids to partner up and know where they are going so you can get a head count and make sure everyone is there. It's hard to plan ahead of time because people get sick and don't show etc. I've sat alone on chartered buses, but usually had friends across the aisle to talk to. 9 times out of 10 though they'd put a movie on for us, so no one would be talking anyway. I truly feel sorry for your son if he was all alone for an hour and a half with nothing to do. Maybe you could let the teacher know so that in the future she can be aware of this issue and try to avoid it.

[ckaranassos]

Thanks for everyones responses and I do understand the need to pair up the children for safety, the problem is she did not pair them up the kids all chose someone to sit with and my son unfortunately just got left out (really due to the fact that there is only 11 boys in the class and the bus only had two seaters.) I am taking it in stride because his teacher is new this year and she is learning some things that comes natural now to seasoned teachers. She did put them in groups of 6 consisting of 3 girls and 3 boys to tour the museum together but they were allowed to sit with whoever they wanted. Like I said he has moved on and is over it = Mommys take a little longer.

[PAYROLL PRINCESS]

I'm so sorry this happened to your little guy. I'm sure that was a long bus ride for him. But I'm sure it wasn't on purpose. But the teacher does need to know so that she can make sure it doesn't happen again. If she doesn't know it was a problem then she can't fix it.

[Piglet822]

or if the kids were little they could have sat three to a seat

I drive chartered motor coaches and due to insurance and safety reasons there should only be one body to one seat. Not to say it doesn't happen - it does.
I've taken lots of school groups and it seems that most times the kids (regardless of age group, elementary to high school) are told to take the same seats - not all the time. I had one group that switched from the front to the back - the group that sat in the front of the bus going up sat in the back coming back.
The one I had to raise my eyebrows at was the teacher that said boys on one side of the bus and girls on the other. My only question was what do we do if we run out of seats on one side of the bus? :shrug:

[Mickey91]

They should at least have paired him with someone on the way home. Field trips are a big deal to kids mostly because it's free time with their friends. The teacher needed to do more to rectify the situation. I would be angry too.

[ncscgirl2005]

Hmmm...when I first read this thread I was thinking that DD10 would have loved this!!! When I went with her class on a field trip 1.5 hrs away, the kids were fussing over who would be the odd man so they could have the seat to themselves. But they are fifth graders and I guess that sort of thing is "cool". However if DD7 had gone through the same thing as your son then I would be upset too. Perhaps you should mention something to the teacher.